Restoration Marlborough Sounds
Terrestrial-Marine Connectivity: The Mai i te Rangi ki te Moana Principle
E-Ko Tours’ partnership with the Sounds Enhancement Project (SEP) utilises the “Mai i te Rangi ki te Moana” (from the sky to the sea) philosophy to address catchment health. This principle recognises that marine ecosystem health depends on conditions across the entire catchment, from ridge tops where rain falls to the bays where sediment settles.
E-Ko Tours conservation work has evolved to address this connectivity. This article explains how the Totaras for Totaranui project works, why sedimentation is a critical problem for marine life in the Sounds, and how catchment restoration contributes to Hector’s dolphin conservation and benthic ecosystem recovery.
The Sedimentation Problem
Research into historical ecosystem changes indicates that since human habitation, there has been dramatic loss of abundance in fish, shellfish, and crayfish. Sedimentation, driven by land-use changes, forestry, and historical clearing, has created a “lasting legacy” on the seafloor, impacting the benthic environments that sustain marine life.
When forest cover is removed, rainfall carries more soil into waterways. This sediment flows to the coast where it settles on the seafloor, smothering the organisms that form the foundation of marine food webs.
Seagrass meadows have disappeared from many areas due to sedimentation and reduced water clarity. These meadows, despite occupying only 0.1% of the seafloor, are responsible for 12% of organic carbon burial and provide critical nursery habitat for juvenile fish.
The Partnership Approach
E-Ko Tours’ partnership with the Sounds Enhancement Project involves multifaceted restoration addressing the full connectivity between terrestrial and marine systems:
Catchment Condition Assessments
Monitoring water quality, temperature, and turbidity to create integrated management plans
Benthic Recovery
Efforts to restore seagrass meadows through improved water quality and reduced sedimentation
Sediment Mitigation
Installing sediment traps and clearing debris from streams to protect the breeding and birthing bays of the endangered Hector’s Dolphin
These interventions address the causal chain from land-based erosion to marine habitat degradation.
The Totaras for Totaranui Project
The “Totaras for Totaranui” project serves as a prime example of land-based restoration benefiting marine ecosystems. By restoring the once-abundant Tōtara (Podocarpus totara), E-Ko and the SEP are creating a year-round food supply for native birds, which in turn supports the nutrient cycle of the coastal environment.
The project operates in phases based on catchment condition and restoration priorities:
| Phase | Location | Objective |
| Phase 1 | Victoria Domain (Picton) | Pilot project to manage recovering cleared land |
| Phase 2 | Arapaoa Island | Reducing sediment input into the Tūpoupou MPA |
| Subsequent Phases | Condition-based prioritisation | Integrated catchment restoration based on water quality data |
Why Tōtara?
Tōtara historically provided year-round food for native birds through berries and the insects its bark harboured. Restoring Tōtara stands rebuilds this food supply while stabilising slopes and reducing erosion.
The long-lived nature of Tōtara means that trees planted now will provide ecosystem services across multiple human generations, aligning with the intergenerational perspective that defines kaitiakitanga.
Riparian Planting and Sediment Traps
The partnership involves riparian planting and sediment traps to improve water clarity for benthic feeders like King Shag. These interventions work by:
Riparian Planting
Vegetation along stream banks stabilises banks and filters sediment from overland flow before it reaches watercourses
Sediment Traps
Physical structures in streams that catch debris and allow sediment to settle before water flows downstream toward marine habitats
These are targeted interventions addressing specific sedimentation sources rather than generic “eco-friendly” activities.
The Connection to Hector’s Dolphins
Installing sediment traps and clearing debris from streams protects the breeding and birthing bays of the endangered Hector’s Dolphin. The sheltered bays along Arapaoa Island’s western coast where dolphins raise calves require clear water and healthy benthic communities to support the fish populations dolphins feed on.
Reducing sediment input into these bays improves food availability in nursing grounds—a direct connection between terrestrial restoration work and marine mammal conservation.
This demonstrates why dolphin conservation can’t focus solely on boat-based protocols. The habitat quality that determines whether dolphins can successfully raise calves depends on what’s happening in catchments kilometres from the ocean.
Supporting SEP Artificial Reef and Seagrass Restoration
E-Ko supports SEP artificial reef and seagrass restoration work that improves food availability in nursing grounds. These interventions rebuild benthic habitat complexity where natural structures have been degraded.
Artificial reefs provide substrate for sessile organisms to colonise and create three-dimensional structure that supports diverse fish communities. Seagrass restoration requires improved water clarity—which depends on reducing sediment input through catchment management.
These efforts work in concert: reduce sediment through catchment restoration, improve water clarity, allow seagrass to reestablish, rebuild fish nursery habitat, increase food availability for dolphins and King Shags.
Historical Stressors and Regenerative Responses
The table below from the research shows how regenerative responses address specific historical stressors:
| Historical Stressor | Regenerative Response (E-Ko/SEP) | Ecological Outcome |
| Forest Clearing | “Totaras for Totaranui” reforestation | Year-round food supply for native birds |
| Sedimentation | Riparian planting and sediment traps | Improved water clarity for benthic feeders like King Shag |
This systematic approach targets the mechanisms of degradation rather than treating symptoms.
The 5% Conservation Fund Contribution
E-Ko’s 5% conservation fund includes 2% direct project reinvestment tracking the number of native plants on Arapaoa Island and the expansion of seagrass monitoring.
This financial contribution supports the actual implementation of catchment restoration work. The percentage is fixed in our business model, it’s not a discretionary donation that varies with profitability.
The fund also allocates 3% to sponsorships and partner support, including funding for the Sounds Enhancement Project partnership.
The Blue Economy Connection
The concept of “Blue Wealth” recognises that healthy marine ecosystems generate long-term economic value through fisheries, tourism, coastal protection, and climate regulation.
Investing in catchment restoration protects this productive capital. When benthic habitats recover, fish populations rebuild. When seagrass meadows reestablish, they sequester carbon and provide nursery habitat. These ecosystem services have economic value that extractive approaches destroy.
Regenerative tourism treats catchment restoration as investment in the productive capacity that tourism depends on, not as charity separate from business operations.
Condition-Based Prioritisation
Subsequent phases of the Totaras for Totaranui project use condition-based prioritisation for integrated catchment restoration based on water quality data.
This adaptive approach allows resources to be directed where they’ll have the greatest impact. Catchment condition assessments identify which sub-catchments contribute the most sediment, and restoration efforts focus on these priority areas.
This is scientific management rather than dispersed effort. It requires ongoing monitoring to track results and adjust interventions based on what works.
Time Scales of Recovery
Catchment restoration operates on time scales measured in decades. Trees planted today won’t provide full erosion control for years. Sediment currently on the seafloor won’t disappear quickly even when new inputs stop.
The three-decade commitment E-Ko has demonstrated through our continuous dataset reflects the time scales required for meaningful ecological change. Short-term interventions can’t address degradation that accumulated across 150 years of land-use change.
Looking Forward
The Totaras for Totaranui project demonstrates that catchment restoration can work when properly designed and sustained. The challenge is scaling from pilot projects to landscape-level intervention across the entire Marlborough Sounds catchment.
E-Ko’s role is contributing financially to this work through our conservation fund, explaining to visitors why terrestrial restoration matters for marine conservation, and maintaining the long-term commitment needed to see results across decades.
For visitors to the Sounds, understanding this connectivity changes how you see the landscape. Those hillsides being replanted aren’t decoration, they’re infrastructure protecting dolphin breeding grounds. That stream restoration isn’t cosmetic, it’s rebuilding the food web that supports King Shags. The forest recovering around you is the foundation for marine health below the waterline.
Hub Series Navigation
You are here: Hub 3 – From Sky to Sea: Catchment Restoration
Hub 5: Kaitiakitanga and Cultural Tourism in the Marlborough Sounds – Iwi partnerships and mātauranga Māori